The Crystal Dove
by Ivytruce2
Summary: Carlisle and Bella spend some quality time together on Christmas Eve while the rest of the family is out. Yes, I know it's not Christmas yet. Let's just call it Christmas in July! I couldn't wait to post.


Hey everybody! I decided to write something Christmassy this summer because sometimes inspiration works that way! Lots of 90 degree days makes me long for the snow again, so I'm calling it Christmas in July. =)

**Important Note:**

**This story would not be possible without the beta work and writing of Mackenzie L., my greatest fan fiction idol. My story will contain loads of references to her canon Carlisle/Esme back-story universe, (because I'm just not brilliant enough to make up my own). If you read her epic story ****Stained Glass Soul****, you can find a lot of these references throughout her story and in chapters 45 and 46, during the (very romantic) Christmas scenes that Carlisle and Esme spend together.  
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_Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. No copyright infringement is intended._

**The Crystal Dove**

_**Bella's P.O.V.**_

_Stupid truck!_

I couldn't count how many times that thought crossed my mind per day. Honestly it was getting beyond ridiculous. If there was one thing worse than driving that hunk of useless red metal, it was driving it during the _winter. _

Scratch that. Driving it during a sub-zero degree night during a snowstorm in winter.

I _was _getting closer to the Cullens' house, but being I was too afraid to press too hard on the gas pedal, I was doing about three miles per hour down the hill.

Being in the middle of a frozen-over, pitch black forest with awful signage didn't help much either.

In short, I was doomed.

The snow just seemed to be coming down harder with every inch my truck moved down the road. The streets were slippery, and my poor windshield wipers were getting stuck in ice every time they tried to swipe away the accumulated snow.

I cursed and fumbled and threw my arms up in the air, but my truck just wasn't working with me tonight.

I probably should have taken that ride Edward offered me earlier.

Suddenly, the engine made a loud "_kerplunk_!"

Yep. Definitely should have let Edward pick me up.

I let out a long groan of exasperation as my car slowed to a halt in the middle of the snowy road. Just my luck.

Now that the heater was out, my teeth were already beginning to chatter. I tucked my winter coat tighter around me and pulled out my cell phone to call the Cullens.

The little yellow triangle flickered in the bottom corner of my cell phone screen.

No service.

I wasn't about to get out of the car and start searching for their house when I wasn't even sure where I was. I was bound to get lost if I did that. I guessed it was best to just stay put.

On the verge of panicking, I took a few deep breaths and starting thinking fast. I flipped my emergency blinkers on, twisted around in my seat and grabbed a flashlight from the glove compartment. The cold was creeping inside my car fast; I could swear that little crystal formations were already growing on the inside of my windows.

There was nothing left to do but close my eyes and pray for a miracle...

"Bella?" I thought I heard my name being called, a faint voice in the distance.

Great, now I was hearing things.

I burrowed deeper into my coat and pressed my flashlight to my chest, trying to warm myself up by any means possible.

"Bella?" I heard it again. Same voice, slightly closer.

A knock on my car door startled me, making me fly a foot off my seat and my eyes snap open.

I dropped the flashlight on the ground.

"Carlisle?" I practically screamed, kicking open my car door and flinging myself into the arms of Edward's father. I was never more happy to see a doctor in my life.

"What on earth are you doing out here?" he asked me, looking over my broken down truck in confusion. "Dear God, Bella, what happened?"

I resisted the urge to start crying as I explained everything to him.

"I just couldn't risk going out to find someone, so I decided it was best to stay put until someone came across me."

Carlisle looked incredulous.

"You really do have the worst luck, you know that?"

I couldn't help but laugh bitterly at the truth in his statement. I swiped at my eyes with the back of my glove and stood pathetically before him in the snow.

"At least I was lucky enough to have you rescue me." I shrugged.

"Indeed." He stared me up and down. "But you must be freezing! How long have you been out here with no heat?"

"About ten minutes?" I guessed. Immediately I was smothered by Carlisle's red wool scarf as he forced it around my shoulders and took my hand.

"Come on now, let's get you inside before you get hypothermia!"

He kindly helped me up the icy road, caught me several times on the steps up to the front door, and finally led me into the warm house. I never recalled being more relieved to be inside a house in my life!

"S..so where i..is e..everyone?" I asked through chattering teeth when I saw that the place appeared to be empty.

"Rosalie and Emmett went into town, Esme and Alice are out Christmas shopping, and Edward and Jasper went for a hunt."

"Hunting? In this weather?"

Carlisle gave me a weird look. "Bella, you're forgetting the cold doesn't bother us."

"Oh, right."

"Edward decided he would have time for a hunt before you made it here, so I told him I'd wait here just in case you showed up early," Carlisle explained. "He also said he offered to pick you up and bring you out here earlier, but you told him you would rather do it yourself."

I could tell Carlisle was trying not to show his grimace. Truthfully I wouldn't have cared if he wanted to stand there and yell at me for refusing Edward's offer to drive me. I would have deserved it for having such terrible judgment.

"I should have known something like this would happen!" I groaned, letting my face fall into my hands.

Carlisle clicked his tongue. "Nonsense, Bella. No one can ever predict when these things will happen... Except Alice, of course." He chuckled, putting me at ease as I joined him reluctantly in laughter.

Carlisle led me into the brightly lit kitchen and pulled out a stool for me to sit on beside the counter.

"I know if my wife were here she would insist that we make you a cup of hot cocoa. Are you opposed?" he asked, pausing with his hand on the refrigerator door.

I shook my head fervently, still shivering from the cold. "Absolutely not. Honestly that sounds amazing right now."

He smiled to himself as he turned around and grabbed a carton of milk and hot cocoa mix from the cupboard. I would have felt kind of bad just sitting there while someone did everything for me, but I knew with Carlisle things were different. It brought him joy to do things for other people, to serve them in any way he could.

The microwave beeped out at last and he placed in front of me a steaming mug full of delicious smelling hot chocolate.

"I don't suppose you have any-"

"Marshmallows?" he finished, already at the cupboard with a small white bag of them in his hand.

"I thought Edward was the one who read minds," I joked. Carlisle laughed as he opened the plastic bag and let me take a handful of fluffy marshmallows.

"It would appear his talent is contagious," Carlisle quipped back.

I downed half my cup of hot cocoa in one gulp, enjoying the way the heat spread from my throat to the rest of my body. Already I was warming up.

"Would you like to join me in the living room, Bella?" he asked politely as he headed for the kitchen doorway. "I want to light a fire for you; maybe it would help you warm up faster."

"I'd love that, thanks," I said, sliding off the stool with my mug in hand. I followed him into the dimly lit living room where he flipped a light switch and surprised me by turning on the lights to the Christmas tree.

My jaw dropped. The tree was at least a dozen feet tall, a gorgeous rich dark green color as if it had been freshly cut from the forest right outside their house. It was covered all over with strings of golden garland and twinkling matching golden lights. Shining gold and silver balls reflected the lights from where they hung, on every other branch from the top to the bottom. It looked like it came off the front cover of a home improvement magazine.

"Wow ... your tree is ... incredible." I said as I stared up at the extravagant tree in utter amazement. "Let me guess, Esme and Alice did the decorating?"

Carlisle grinned as he stared proudly up at the tall tree. "Of course they did. You should have seen how excited they were to get the tree. I think Alice dug up all of our Christmas ornaments before Thanksgiving."

I laughed, imagining an over-eager Alice rummaging through the boxes of Christmas decorations before December even arrived.

"Here, sit right on this couch and put your feet up." Carlisle gestured to the soft sofa nearest to the fireplace. He unfolded a pretty Native American style blanket and draped it across my knees. I tried not to blush. He was unintentionally making me feel like some kind of queen.

I watched him light the fireplace, tossing in bits of ripped up newspapers until it was roaring. Once he had the fireplace going, he took out a box of matches and started to light little candles on the mantel beside their Christmas cards.

"I always see you lighting candles, Carlisle," I mentioned casually. "What's the story behind that?"

If it wasn't my imagination, I could have sworn he looked a little bashful. "I suppose you could say I've become quite attached to them over the years," he said. "Honestly I think of them as my dearest friends, as silly as it may sound to a young woman like you."

"I don't think that sounds silly at all," I said. I hoped he could tell that I was sincere.

He turned and smiled gratefully at me.

Way to dazzle me, Dr. Cullen.

If I wasn't warm from the fire or the cocoa or the blanket, then I was certainly warm from that!

"Are you all right, Bella?" He sounded concerned, but also very much like he was trying very hard _not _to chuckle.

"Yep. I'm good," I assured him, calming myself down with another sip of hot cocoa.

"I should call your father and let him know you arrived here safely," he said, taking his phone out of his pocket.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," I admitted, hating the thought of what Charlie's reaction would be if he heard I'd broken down on the forest roads.

Carlisle rubbed my shoulder reassuringly before he walked out of the room. "I'll take care of it. Be right back."

I sighed and the sound echoed, leaving me alone in the huge living room. My eyes took in the glorious golden Christmas tree again, studying each beautiful ornament and the perfect balance of each branch. The most Charlie ever had was a two foot tall artificial tree with no lights on it. Renee would always waste her money on those cheap metallic trees or the silver ones with fiber-optic lights that came pre-decorated.

Leave it to the Cullens to have a Christmas tree that would shame Martha Stuart's name.

Feeling warm enough to get up from my spot by the fire, I carried the blanket around my shoulders as I walked up to the tree to get a closer look. Each ornament seemed to be of the same variety, repeating from branch to branch as they went up the tree. But one ornament looked out of place, different than the rest.

Squinting my eyes, I could make out a tiny crystal dove with its wings outspread in flight. It hung from a thin gold string on the uppermost branch, twirling slowly in the golden lights that twinkled behind it. It was beautiful, and I found myself wanting to see it close up.

"Your father said he was alright with you staying the night, Bella," Carlisle's voice informed me from the doorway.

"Uh huh," I replied absently.

"Bella?" Carlisle approached me in concern, adjusting the blanket on my shoulders as he came up behind me. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing, I was just..." I trailed off, wondering if it would bother him to inquire about the mysterious little dove at the top of the tree. Before I could think, I blurted out, "Carlisle, where did that dove ornament come from? The one at the very top? It's so different from all the others... It's beautiful."

He sighed, a reminiscent look crossing his stunning golden eyes as he stared at the ornament in question.

"That ... was a Christmas gift I gave to Esme a very long time ago."

My eyebrows went up. I wasn't expecting that! "How long ago?"

"It was our first Christmas together, after she was changed."

The look on his face was so romantic I almost squealed.

"Tell me about it?" I nearly demanded, moving closer to him as we looked up at the glowing tree.

Another bashful look crossed his handsome face. "I really don't even know where to begin. For starters, Esme and I were both terribly shy around each other in those days."

"No way!" I exclaimed in surprise.

Carlisle shook his head with a grin. "Oh, you have no idea, Bella."

"So what did you do?"

"I brought home that ornament on Christmas Eve," he said, nodding at the little dove above us, "hoping that an elaborate gift would earn her affections."

"I'm sure Esme didn't need any of that stuff to fall in love with you," I said hastily, flushing red as a beet when I saw the look of pure appreciation on his face.

"Things often appear that way in hindsight," he said wisely.

"So when you gave her the ornament, how did she react?" I asked, stepping backwards until I tumbled casually back into my comfy spot on the sofa.

"Believe it or not, she was disappointed," he told me.

"Disappointed?" My face fell.

"Yes, you see I had the ornament hidden in a small box, and when I presented it to her, she expected me to propose," Carlisle explained. "She didn't show it on her face then, but years later she told me that she thought I was bringing her an engagement ring in that box." He smiled at the memory.

"Wow, poor Esme..." I sighed, cuddling my blanket.

"Of course it wasn't an entire disappointment. After all, I did get to help her put that ornament on the tree."

"Oh?" I perked up.

"She wanted it to be at the very top," he said before he added slyly, "but she couldn't quite reach it on her own..."

"Ohhhh!" I grinned as I imagined a younger and far more naive Carlisle seizing the opportunity to get closer to his future mate by lifting her up to reach the top of their Christmas tree.

He sent me a bashful smirk, but his eyes were glowing.

"So that's why the dove is still at the very top of this tree?" I asked, pointing to the upper branch.

"Yes, that's why." He nodded. "We never hang it anywhere else."

"That's such a sweet story," I said with a yawn.

"You're about to fall asleep, Bella," he said with a laugh. "Are you sure it wasn't a _boring _story?"

I laughed weakly as I snuggled into the blanket. "Absolutely not a boring story. I really enjoyed you telling it to me."

"It's not often you and I have some time to ourselves," he noted. "Perhaps we should make ... arrangements to spend more time together," he suggested timidly.

I opened my heavy eyes with effort to smile sleepily at him. "I'd like that."

He smiled back at me and tucked the blanket closer to my chin. "So would I."

"Carlisle?"

"Hm?"

"Do you think you can wake me whenever Edward gets back?" I pleaded before my eyes drifted closed again.

"Of course, Bella," his soft voice promised. "Sleep tight."

**Now who wishes it was actually Christmas right now? LOL. I know I do!**

**Ok ... so no one accuses me of stealing, the parts I borrowed from Stained Glass Soul are as follows: Carlisle's reasons for why he likes to light candles everywhere, the Native American blanket that Bella uses to keep warm, the red wool scarf that Carlisle was wearing and put on Bella, and of course the dove ornament that Bella sees on the tree. If you want to read the actual moment that Carlisle gives Esme the dove ornament that I was referring to, you can find it in chapter 45 of Stained Glass Soul, kind of near the bottom. =)**

**As if she hasn't done enough for me already, Mackenzie L. also created a masterpiece banner for this story, which you can find on either my or her profile. Check it out!**

**And please review! I really want to hear what you all think about my writing! Honest critiques are welcome!**


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